Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

GOCE: assessment of GPS-only gravity field determination

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Geodesy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The GOCE satellite was orbiting the Earth in a Sun-synchronous orbit at a very low altitude for more than 4 years. This low orbit and the availability of high-quality data make it worthwhile to assess the contribution of GOCE GPS data to the recovery of both the static and time-variable gravity fields. We use the kinematic positions of the official GOCE precise science orbit (PSO) product to perform gravity field determination using the Celestial Mechanics Approach. The generated gravity field solutions reveal severe systematic errors centered along the geomagnetic equator. Their size is significantly coupled with the ionospheric density and thus generally increasing over the mission period. The systematic errors may be traced back to the kinematic positions of the PSO product and eventually to the ionosphere-free GPS carrier phase observations used for orbit determination. As they cannot be explained by the current higher order ionospheric correction model recommended by the IERS Conventions 2010, an empirical approach is presented by discarding GPS data affected by large ionospheric changes. Such a measure yields a strong reduction of the systematic errors along the geomagnetic equator in the gravity field recovery, and only marginally reduces the set of useable kinematic positions by at maximum 6 % for severe ionosphere conditions. Eventually it is shown that GOCE gravity field solutions based on kinematic positions have a limited sensitivity to the largest annual signal related to land hydrology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Beutler G, Jäggi A, Mervart L, Meyer U (2010a) The celestial mechanics approach: theoretical foundations. J Geod 84(10):605–624. doi:10.1007/s00190-010-0401-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beutler G, Jäggi A, Mervart L, Meyer U (2010b) The celestial mechanics approach: application to data of the GRACE mission. J Geod 84(11):661–681. doi:10.1007/s00190-010-0402-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baur O, Bock H, Höck E, Jäggi A, Krauss S, Mayer-Gürr T, Reubelt T, Siemes C, Zehentner N (2014) Comparison of GOCE-GPS gravity fields derived by different approaches. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-014-0736-6

  • Bock H, Jäggi A, Meyer U, Visser P, van den IJssel J, van Helleputte T, Heinze M, Hugentobler U (2011a) GPS-derived orbits for the GOCE satellite. J Geod 85(11):807–818. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0484-9

  • Bock H, Jäggi A, Meyer U, Dach R, Beutler G (2011b) Impact of GPS antenna phase center variations on precise orbits of the GOCE satellite. Adv Space Res 47(11):1885–1893. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2011.01.017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bock H, Jäggi A, Beutler G, Meyer U (2014) GOCE: precise orbit determination for the entire mission. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-014-0742-8

  • Bouman J, Fiorot S, Fuchs M, Gruber T, Schrama E, Tscherning C, Veicherts M, Visser P (2011) GOCE gravitational gradients along the orbit. J Geod 85:791–805. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0464-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brockmann E (1997) Combination of solutions for geodetic and geodynamic applications of the global positioning system (GPS). Geodätisch-geophysikalische Arbeiten in der Schweiz, vol 55. Schweizerische Geodätische Kommission

  • Brockmann JM, Höck E, Krasbutter I, Mayer-Gürr T, Pail R, Schuh W-D, Zehentner N (2013) Performance of the fourth generation GOCE time-wise Earth gravity field model. Geophys Res Abstr 15

  • Cesare S (2008) Performance requirements and budgets for the gradio-metric mission, 4th edn. Technical report, Thales Alenia Space

  • Dach R, Brockmann E, Schaer S, Beutler G, Meindl M, Prange L, Bock H, Jäggi A, Ostini L (2009) GNSS processing at CODE: status report. J Geod 83(3–4):353–366. doi:10.1007/s00190-008-0281-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drinkwater M, Haagmans R, Muzi D, Popescu A, Floberghagen R, Kern M, Fehringer M (2006) The GOCE gravity mission: ESA’s first core explorer. In: 3rd GOCE User Workshop, 6–8 Nov 2006, Frascati, Italy, pp 1–7, ESA SP-627

  • European GOCE Gravity Consortium (EGG-C) (2010a) GOCE Standards, GO-TN-HPF-GS-0111, Issue 3.2

  • European GOCE Gravity Consortium (EGG-C) (2010b) GOCE Level 2 Product Data Handbook, GO-MA-HPF-GS-0110, Issue 4.3

  • ESA (2004) Swarm—The Earth’s Magnetic Field and Environment Explorers. Reports for Mission Selection, The Six Candidate Earth Explorer Missions, ESA SP-1279(6)

  • ESA (2006) GOCE L1b Products User Handbook, GOCE-GSEG-EOPG-TN-06-137, Issue 1.1

  • Flechtner F, Schmidt R, Meyer U (2006) De-aliasing of short-term atmospheric and oceanic mass variations for GRACE. In: Flury J, Rummel R, Reigber C, Rothacher M, Boedecker G, Schreiber U (eds) Observation of the earth system from space. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 83–97

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Flechtner F, Morton P, Watkins M, Webb F (2013) Status of the GRACE follow-on mission. In: Proceedings of the international association of geodesy symposia gravity, geoid and height system (GGHS2012), 9–11 Oct 2012, Venice, Italy, IAGS-D-12-00141, accepted

  • Floberghagen R, Fehringer M, Lamarre D, Muzi D, Frommknecht B, Steiger C, Pineiro J, da Costa A (2011) Mission design, operation and exploitation of the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer mission. J Geod 85(11):749–758. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0498-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Intelisano A, Mazzini L, Notarantonio A, Landenna S, Zin A, Scaciga L, Marradi L (2008) Recent flight experiences of TAS-I on-board navigation equipments. In: Proceedings of the 4th ESA workshop on satellite navigation user equipment technologies, NAVITEC2008, 10–12 Dec 2008, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

  • Jäggi A, Hugentobler U, Beutler G (2006) Pseudo-stochastic orbit modeling techniques for Low-Earth orbiters. J Geod 80(1):47–60. doi:10.1007/s00190-006-0029-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jäggi A, Bock H, Pail R, Goiginger H (2008) Highly reduced dynamic orbits and their use for global gravity field recovery: a simulation study for GOCE. Stud Geophys Geod 52(3):341–359. doi:10.1007/s11200-008-0025-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jäggi A, Dach R, Montenbruck O, Hugentobler U, Bock H, Beutler G (2009) Phase center modeling for LEO GPS receiver antennas and its impact on precise orbit determination. J Geod 83(12):1145–1162. doi:10.1007/s00190-009-0333-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jäggi A, Bock H, Prange L, Meyer U, Beutler G (2011a) GPS-only gravity field recovery with GOCE, CHAMP, and GRACE. Adv Space Res 47(6):1020–1028. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2010.11.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jäggi A, Prange L, Hugentobler U (2011b) Impact of covariance information of kinematic positions on orbit reconstruction and gravity field recovery. Adv Space Res 47(9):1472–1479. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2010.12.009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jakowski N, Mayer C, Wilken V (2006) GPS sounding of the ionosphere onboard CHAMP. In: Characterising the ionosphere, RTO-MP-IST-056, Paper 26

  • Koop R, Gruber T, Rummel R (2006) The status of the GOCE high-level processing facility. In: 3rd GOCE User Workshop, 6–8 Nov 2006, Frascati, Italy, pp 195–205, ESA SP-627

  • Lemoine FG, Smith DE, Kunz L, Smith R, Pavlis EC, Pavlis NK, Klosko SM, Chinn DS, Torrence MH, Williamson RG, Cox CM, Rachlin KE, Wang YM, Kenyon SC, Salman R, Trimmer R, Rapp RH, Nerem RS (1997) The development of the NASA GSFC and NIMA joint geopotential model. In: Segawa J, Fujimoto H, Okubo S (eds) IAG symposia: gravity. Springer, Geoid and Marine Geodesy, pp 461–469

  • Lyard F, Lefevre F, Letellier T, Francis O (2006) Modelling the global ocean tides: insights from FES2004. Ocean Dynam 56:394–415. doi:10.1007/s10236-006-0086-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer-Gürr T, Eicker A, Kurtenbach E, Ilk KH (2010) ITG-GRACE: Global static and temporal gravity field models from GRACE data. In Flechtner et al. (Eds) System Earth via GeodeticGeophysical Space Techniques. Springer, Berlin, pp 159–168. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-10228-8_13

  • Mayer-Gürr T, Rieser D, Hoeck E, Brockmann JM, Schuh W-D, Krasbutter I, Kusche J, Maier A, Krauss S, Hausleitner W, Baur O, Jäggi A, Meyer U, Prange L, Pail R, Fecher T, Gruber T (2012) The new combined satellite only model GOCO03s. In: International symposium on gravity, geoid and height systems GGHS 2012, Venice, Italy, October 09–12

  • Meyer U, Jäggi A, Beutler G (2012) Monthly gravity field solutions based on GRACE observations generated with the Celestial Mechanics Approach. Earth Planet Sci Lett 345–348:72–80. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2012.06.026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy DD, Petit G (2004) IERS Conventions 2003. IERS Technical note no.32. Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

  • Pail R, Bruinsma S, Migliaccio F, Förste C, Goiginger H, Schuh W-D, Höck E, Reguzzoni M, Brockmann JM, Abrikosov O, Veicherts M, Fecher T, Mayrhofer R, Krasbutter I, Sansò F, Tscherning CC (2011) First GOCE gravity field models derived by three different approaches. J Geod 85(11):819–843. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0467-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petit G, Luzum B (2010) IERS Conventions 2010. IERS Technical note no.36. Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

  • Prange L (2010) Global gravity field determination using the GPS measurements made onboard the low earth orbiting satellite CHAMP. Geodätisch-geophysikalische Arbeiten in der Schweiz, vol 81. Schweizerische Geodätische Kommission

  • Reigber C, Lühr H, Schwintzer P (1998) Status of the CHAMP Mission. In: Rummel R, Drewes H, Bosch W, Hornik H (eds) Towards an integrated global geodetic observing system (IGGOS). Springer, Berlin, pp 63–65

  • Rummel R, Yi W, Stummer C (2011) GOCE gravitational gradiometry. J Geod 85(11):777–790. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0500-0

  • Schaer S (1999) Mapping and predicting the earth’s ionosphere using the global positioning system. Geodätisch-geophysikalische Arbeiten in der Schweiz, vol 59. Schweizerische Geodätische Kommission

  • Standish EM (1998) JPL Planetary and Lunar Ephemerides, DE405/LE405. JPL IOM 312.F-98-048

  • Švehla D, Rothacher M (2005) Kinematic precise orbit determination for gravity field determination. In: Sansò F (ed) A window on the future of geodesy. Springer, Berlin, pp 181–188. doi:10.1007/3-540-27432-4_32

  • Tapley BD, Bettadpur S, Ries JC, Thompson PF, Watkins M (2004) GRACE measurements of mass variability in the Earth system. Science 305(5683):503–505. doi:10.1126/science.1099192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Gelderen M, Koop R (1997) The use of degree variances in satellite gradiometry. J Geod 71(6):337–343. doi:10.1007/s001900050101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Helleputte T, Visser P (2008) GPS based orbit determination using accelerometer data. Aerosp Sci Technol 12(6):478–484. doi:10.1016/j.ast.2007.11.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Visser PNAM, van der Wal W, Schrama EJO, van den IJssel J, Bouman J, (2014) Assessment of observing time-variable gravity from GOCE GPS and accelerometer observations. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-014-0741-9

  • Weigelt M, van Dam T, Jäggi A, Prange L, Tourian MJ, Keller W, Sneeuw N (2013) Time-variable gravity signal in Greenland revealed by high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking. J Geophys Res Solid Earth 118(7):3848–3859. doi:10.1002/jgrb.50283

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was partly performed in the framework of the GOCE High-level Processing Facility (HPF), which is funded by ESA. The support of ESA is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank M. Weigelt for adopting the Kalman filter approach to the 20-day GOCE gravity field solutions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Adrian Jäggi, H. Bock, U. Meyer & G. Beutler

  2. Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS, Delft, The Netherlands

    J. van den IJssel

Authors
  1. Adrian Jäggi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. Bock
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. U. Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. G. Beutler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. J. van den IJssel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adrian Jäggi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jäggi, A., Bock, H., Meyer, U. et al. GOCE: assessment of GPS-only gravity field determination. J Geod 89, 33–48 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-014-0759-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-014-0759-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation